Modeling of novel microfluidic based flow sensor inspired from fish canal neuromast for underwater sensing

Modeling of the novel microfluidic based flow sensor inspired from the canal neuromast in the fish lateral line system has been presented in this paper. The structure of the sensor consisted of the dome-shaped membrane and integrated with the microchannel which was filled with electrolyte. The analysis on the model was carried out using the computational fluid dynamic and finite element method. Based on the simulation, high performance of this sensor can be achieved by increasing the radius and decreasing the ratio of the radius of the dome-shaped membrane. The dome with 2.5 mm radius and 1.01 ratios was chosen due to the maximum response for the drag force and displacement based on the velocity input. The PDMS material which has lowers of Young Modulus was suggested to be used as a membrane. The microfluidic technology was proposed as a sensing element due to the simple structure and easy to be fabricated compare to the common sensing element such as piezoresistive and strain gage. The different electrolytes such as methanol, ethanol, water and propylene carbonate were simulated in order to study the effect of using different electrolytes to the performance of the microchannel. The methanol which has low viscosity and low surface tension was proposed to be used as an electrolyte for this sensor.